Even if Americans aren't spending as much time outdoors, wildlife is making an appearance right on peoples' front steps.

The call of the wild can be found by looking out the window in everyday suburbia.

Deer chomping on freshly planted perennials, raccoons rummaging through trash, flying squirrels scurrying through the attic at night, or the golf course turning into a Canada goose porta-potty.

The question of how to handle these "nuisance species" is difficult, and many times, expensive. Encounters with wildlife can be dangerous in the case of deer-vehicle collisions or just bothersome. Lethal methods of elimination can be controversial, so American cities and neighborhoods that are continuing to sprawl face the challenge of controlling species that may have nowhere else to go.

"A lot of development has put wildlife in direct interaction with people," says Greg Yarrow, chair of the Division of Natural Resources and professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University. "Those interactions can start in a positive way in terms of appreciation of wildlife, but when damage occurs, that quickly turns to negative feelings towards the wildlife."

In Montgomery County, Md., Peggy Dennis has been treated twice for lyme disease, typically caused by bites from a deer tick.

"I've been battling deer for 25 years," Dennis says.

Despite a four-foot high electric fence in the back of her house and eight-foot high deer netting surrounding the front of the house, she says an occasional deer still finds its way over the fencing.

"It's expensive, but the deer hang out in the park during the day, and at dusk, walk over and munch us out of house and home," Dennis says.

Suburbanites' yards aren't the only ones affected. Yarrow says many agricultural areas face massive issues with deer damaging or eating crops. In 13 northeastern states, deer populations cause an estimated $248 million in damage each year to agricultural crops, nurseries and landscaping, according to a 2005 study by the extension programs at Penn State, Rutgers, and Cornell University.

Yarrow says some South Carolina farmers have leased their land to hunters in hopes of controlling the population. He says landowners face a double threat because feral hogs are increasingly plowing through the landscape.

Although protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, many geese no longer migrate, mainly because milder weather creates open water and food year-round. These resident populations now create problems on golf courses and in communities all year.

Excessive droppings can become a public health concern, fouling beaches, drinking water supplies and ponds. Yarrow said in the summer, during a short period when geese lose their flight feathers, many states are issued federal permits to euthanize a small portion of the population. While this causes a stir with some in the community, geese are tricky, since moving them is not really an option.

Non-lethal methods such as shaking the eggs so they don't hatch or enlisting dogs to scare the geese away have been used, as well as certain chemicals that make the geese nauseous, although people worry about their pets ingesting the chemicals.

Non-lethal methods often are just a temporary fix.

"You have to present all the options to the communities or stakeholders, and someone is always going to be unhappy," Yarrow says. "You have to weigh the cost of the damage to that of controlling damage."

For bats and flying squirrels that may be making themselves comfortable in homeowners' attics, many times, the fix is as easy as sealing off the access points in the home.

For the deer populations in suburban areas, D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute, says residents' front yards are essentially the deer version of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

"A lot of times, it takes a change in human behavior, like planting things that aren't as attractive to deer," Schubert says.

There isn't much they won't eat, Dennis says.

"They ate our azaleas down to the brim," Dennis says. "One winter, after they ate everything else, they even ate the holly bushes."

In Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., sharpshooters are hired to cull a small percentage of the deer each year. This year in New York, a small deer population was also treated with birth control in hopes of controlling the booming herd.

"Lethal control creates a cycle. It doesn't solve the problem," says Schubert, whose organization has an annual award for new non-lethal treatments for nuisance species.

"People have different values toward wildlife and different opinions on what should be done," Yarrow says. "The biologist or manager has to present the different options, whether that's lethal or non-lethal or a combo, and let the group decide."

As summer approaches, Schubert says some of the following methods can help keep critters away:

Keep trash out of reach, whether in the garage or in animal-proof containers